A debate building to a peak of intensity

Not since that small Chinese fruit was allowed into a puzzle spelled as LICHI has there been such an outpouring of rage and anguish as was caused by "Peak of intensity (9)" as the clue for CRESCENDO in Quick No 11,887 (June 13).

"This term is commonly misused across the UK media and I hope that you will use it correctly in future" was mild compared with some of the other rebukes. More in sorrow than in anger, a subscriber wrote: "One expects better of the Guardian crossword setters." Even one of these setters wrote in to complain, breaking the natural order where dog does not eat dog. Professional musicians were the most offended. Someone from North America, expressing her great annoyance at the appearance of an incorrect definition, tried to rub salt in the wound with the sentence: "A quick dictionary check would have provided the correct one". She also passed on the information that 55% of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary is of her view.

That last statistic is interesting as the implication is that 45% do not share it and we are not told whether the minority view has been gaining ground in recent years and, if so, how fast. So far as I am aware, none of the UK-based dictionaries has an equivalent Usage Panel. But I can give you the results of a quick check of the dictionaries themselves. All have the musical definition first: a gradual increase in loudness or the symbol to indicate that this is how the passage is to be played. But then Collins: "a peak of noise or intensity"; Chambers: "a high point, a climax (fig.)"; Oxford Dictionary of English: "the most intense point reached". And, as it is now possible for anyone in the UK with a computer to get at the full OED itself for free by joining the local library, I can tell you that this august authority also has: "the peak of an increase in volume, force or intensity, a climax". Further, to counter the accusation that responsibility for the wrong use of the word is recent and should be laid at the feet of the UK media, the OED has F Scott Fitzgerald using it in this sense over 80 years ago in The Great Gatsby and PG Wodehouse writing the sentence "The babble at the bar had risen to a sudden crescendo" in Uncle Fred in Springtime (1939).

I rest my case. But this raises a general question. Words with a specific technical meaning (in this case for musicians) often get used over time in a non-specific or figurative way. At what point does this popular usage cease to be a mistake and become a part of the language so far as crosswords are concerned? My view is that a word (or definition) is legitimate once it has been accepted by the editors of one or more of our reputable dictionaries. So, while I shall continue to fight the good fight on issues of principle such as disinterested/uninterested or expect/anticipate, I am with Fitzgerald and Wodehouse over crescendo, though naturally regretting the pain this apostasy may cause to music lovers.

_____

You may not have noticed a couple of changes on the crossword homepage, which could be of interest to you. First, in addition to being able to print out the Cryptic and Quick puzzles directly from their "Print version" on the screen, you can now click above each puzzle where indicated to get a PDF version that can also be printed out. Several of you have in the past asked that we should do so and now we can. It gives you the puzzle in the same size and format that appear in the paper itself.

Second, in the menu across the top of the home page you will find "Latest solutions". This will get you to the answers to the previous day's puzzles without having to work out their serial numbers and go through the archive search facility.

_____

I detect a feeling in some quarters that an unfair postcode lottery is operating in the way we choose the winners of our prize crossword competitions. The monthly Genius puzzle winner is quite simple. You email your entries into the same file. Then, in some way that is beyond me, a name is picked out at random.

The Saturday prize puzzles are slightly more complicated as entries are received by post or by fax in Birmingham. The posted (or for that matter faxed) entries can be sent either as grids cut out from the paper, or as grids/PDFs downloaded from the website. The people in Birmingham then scan all the names and addresses into one file, so no one is disadvantaged by their chosen route to submission (unless, that is, their name and address are so illegible that the computer cannot scan them). The winners' names are then picked randomly from that computer file and their entries checked by a human being to see that they contain no error. One further point: the rules say that prizes will go to the first five correct entries drawn. You, therefore, do not improve your chances of winning by getting your entry in early. I hope that, where there may be despair, this information may bring hope.

_____

Rather to my surprise, Locum's June Genius puzzle produced a bumper crop of 315 correct entries. The first was received at 0826 GMT on the first Monday and there were a further 31 correct entries that day. Are these puzzles getting too easy or are you all getting smarter?